Seattle Passes Pot Regulations

Pot farms of up to 10,000 square feet will be allowed in most Seattle industrial areas under zoning approved Monday by the City Council.

October 8, 2013

Pot farms of up to 10,000 square feet will be allowed in most Seattle industrial areas under zoning approved Monday by the City Council.

The decision marks a slight retreat by the council, which had approved 50,000-square-foot farms — almost the size of a football field — in a May committee vote.

Since then, though, the full council delayed action until it could see the state’s rules, which now cap all growing operations for legal recreational pot at 30,000 square feet.

In an 8-0 vote, with Councilmember Tom Rasmussen absent, Seattle became the first large city in the state to prepare such detailed regulations for the new recreational-pot system approved by Washington voters last year.

But it wasn’t done without some complaints by medical-marijuana entrepreneurs and concerns from advocates for marine-related industry.